Photo-shopped Lies

Photo-shopped Lies

Media plays a huge role in today’s society. Technology associated with media such as the internet has connected the world together, started revolutions, and has achieved many things that have benefitted us for years now. Although all of this rings true for media, some portrayals in media have had devastating effects that continue to increase. Photoshop has become increasingly popular to magazine and brand editors, celebrities, and models. This affects the way teens see themselves resulting in drastic measures such as eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and bullying one another for being different.

The first case of an eating disorder recognized medically was in 1873 (“Key Events”). The eating disorder was anorexia nervosa and was associated with one’s personal physiological factors. In this time period, it was unknown that a lot of cases of eating disorders was not an exclusively a mental illness, but a result of society’s impacts on an individual. Every single gossip magazine today uses some sort of photo altercation on an individual in each publication (“Celebrity Gossip”). In 2010, researchers at Cardiff University in Wales conducted a study into the effects of celebrity gossip magazines on teenagers' body images (“Celebrity Gossip”). Students were asked to record their eating habits over a six month period and the students who had been exposed to more media containing unrealistic body expectations found to have more eating disorder tendencies than the teenagers whose eating habits stayed normal due to no exposure to media and gossip magazines (“Celebrity Gossip”). The study found that teens who regularly consumed celebrity gossip were more likely to develop an eating disorder (“Celebrity Gossip”). Another...

... middle of paper ...

...uire photo shop. The consequences of such practices include eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and bullying among teenagers and young adults. Teens wish that they looked like the models and celebrities on the covers of magazines. What they need to realize is that what they are running after to obtain does not exist. A picture of the celebrity is taken and then it is sent to be photo shopped: the waist is thinner, the neck in made longer, the blemishes disappear and get removed and the thighs get smaller and perfectly shaped in a matter of seconds. It is then put on the cover of a magazine where teenagers see it in stands everywhere they go. Unless the public protests the media’s use of photo shop, it will continue to be in the back of the minds of teenagers wishing they looked like someone else when in reality, the only person they should wish to be is themselves